Pulisic Assists McKennie To Lead USMNT To Gold Cup Semifinals

The United States Men’s National Team won their quarterfinal game against Curacao 1-0 in Philadelphia on Sunday night. 20-year-old Christian Pulisic wore the arm band for the team last night, and led them to a win with an assist to midfielder Weston McKennie, who scored in the 25th minute. The US will play Jamaica on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Concacaf Gold Cup.

For a majority of the game, the US were second favorites.Although they failed to score,Curacao dominated the possession and seemed to infiltrate every press the US threw at them. Curacao had a strong game plan that lacked concentration in the backline in the 25th minute, but other than that, they dominated the game.

“When you get to the knockout stages, everyone wants to move on to the next round and they’re giving absolutely everything,” Pulisic said, according to USA Today. “Curacao 100 percent wanted that — you could see that in the way they played.”

Gregg Berhalter, the United States head coach, relayed his frustrations to his team multiple times throughout the game. He wasn’t happy with their energy in both halves, lacked creativity and an edge at times in all aspects of the team. Nevertheless, a winning result keeps them alive in the tournament.

McKennie had a day, scoring the only goal for his team, and signing an extension on his previous contract with his German team FC Schalke.

The US moves on to face Jamaica in the semifinals of the Gold Cup on Wednesday. It’s unknown whether or not Berhalter changes the first team around. He could go with Jozy Altidore up front, as Gyasi Zardes was practically a ghost drifting around for 90 minutes against Curacao, with one shot that flew over the bar. Tyler Boyd could be rotated as well as he didn’t have the best of outings either. Pulisic and McKennie stepped up on the front for the US, but we will need more contributions from their front line against a strong Jamaican side.

Article by Tyler Pence